Search Results for: flex

March 5, 2016

Boundless office + Well Buildings + Open plan design drawbacks ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Technology, Workplace

In this week’s Insight Newsletter; Darren Bilsborough explains why Well Building is the new ‘green’ in building design; and Sara Bean finds open plan offices are not necessarily improving staff engagement levels. In news, the leading world cities are in danger of pricing out business tenants; the Chinese embrace Smart Cities as a route to rapid urbanisation; and employers really do attract and retain staff by offering flexible working. Why even the innovative Australians are facing challenges in keeping up with a fast evolving workplace; when technology at work doesn’t match that offered in many homes; and the digitisation of the office finally spells the dawn of a [nearly] paperless office. Download our latest Insight Briefing, produced in partnership with Connection, on how the boundless office can be freed from the shackles of time and place and access the latest issue of Work&Place. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

March 3, 2016

Open plan offices linked to low engagement and workplace satisfaction levels ⁰

by Sara Bean • Comment, Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace design

As we’ve pointed out before, while open plan working can bring cultural benefits such as improved communication and collaboration; the continuing popularity of the open plan office is largely down to cost. The reason the UK has more than twice as many open plan workers as the global average is primarily due to high real estate costs. Now a new report from Steelcase suggests that space and cost-saving strategies such as open plan offices and hot-desking could be impacting workplace satisfaction and engagement. UK employees are falling below the global average for almost all workplace satisfaction metrics, reporting a lack of control over their work environment (59 percent), difficulties concentrating (43 percent) and an inability to work without being interrupted (50 percent). These three factors were found to be central to fostering an engaged and satisfied workforce. Only 29 percent of UK workers are engaged, compared to 34 percent globally.

February 29, 2016

UK firms held back by government’s mediocre broadband targets ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

British companies are growing increasingly exasperated by the UK Government’s failure to provide a world class Broadband infrastructure, according to a new report from the Institute of Directors which will be published later today. According to the report, Ultrafast Britain, the UK is lagging behind many other countries, yet the Government continues to display a ‘poverty of ambition’ on the matter. The report suggests that the commitment to offer 95 percent coverage of ‘superfast’ broadband to the UK by next year is woefully inadequate and the target instead should be to offer speeds of 10 gigabits per second by 2030, around a thousand times faster than the current official target of 10 megabits per second by 2020. Last week the IoD joined those criticising the feeble management of telecoms regulator Ofcom on the issue, calling for the break-up of monopoly broadband infrastructure provider BT Openreach.

February 29, 2016

Report sets out challenges for rapidly changing Australian workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

When it comes to innovation in workplace design and management, there are few countries in the world quite so forward thinking as Australia right now. Even so, Australia’s workers, firms and legislators remain under-prepared for the rapidly changing world of work, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), a Government funded research agency. Many of the trends outlined in the report will be familiar to readers of Insight. Over the next twenty years, it claims that around half (44 percent) of all jobs will be subject to computerisation and automation. Over the same period, it suggests that the majority of people will become active in the gig economy, many of them based in shared coworking spaces. The report also suggests that while Generation Z will be faced with the highest degree of change, an ageing population presents its own challenges.

February 29, 2016

Full employment drive can help over a million more UK over-50s into work ⁰

by Neil Franklin • News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The UK government should find ways to encourage more than one million more over-50 into work by the end of this parliament, claims the Resolution Foundation think tank. The call comes ahead of a final report this week following a nine-month investigation into the issue full employment. The Chancellor announced a commitment to full employment in last year’s Summer Budget, with the government committing to report annually on progress towards this objective. The Foundation says that support for the over 50s, particularly to keep them from leaving the labour force, should be at the heart of the government’s strategy. Older people have contributed the fastest jobs growth of any age group over the last decade, leaving employment rates for workers aged 50-64 and 65+ are at record highs. The Foundation says that previous progress shows this group can and should be at the centre of plans for realising full employment.

February 27, 2016

Want a Google workplace? + The boundless office + Belief in corporate wellness ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Flexible working, Newsletter, Wellbeing, Workplace, Workplace design

In this week’s Insight Newsletter; Kelvin Bromley says the office is reinventing itself; Dr Caroline M. Burns argues that the Google office doesn’t work for everyone and Leeson Medhurst warns that providing too much choice at work can lead to confusion. Mark Eltringham finds wellness programme succeed based on perceptions not actions and Matias Rodsevich explores how performance indicators can help meet business goals. A new BCO report reveals commercial property costs are higher than widely thought; why Gen X is the hardest working generation; the Workplace Foundation says the UK is on the verge of a flexible working tipping point and London legal firms move towards open plan working. Download the latest issue of Work&Place and access an Insight Briefing produced in partnership with Connection, which looks at agile working in the public sector. Visit our new events page, follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

February 23, 2016

Belief in a corporate wellness narrative is more important than action ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Legal news, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

The complexities of wellness at work are laid bare in a new report from the US based pressure group Global Wellness Institute. The most eye-catching conclusion from The Future of Wellness at Work study is that it’s not actual wellness programmes that do most to boost worker health and productivity, but whether employees identify that company as ‘caring’. The report claims that ‘unwellness’ now costs the US around $2.2 trillion each year, equivalent to 12 percent of GDP. The report is published alongside a white paper which lays out the findings from a survey of American employees. Unlocking the Power of Company Caring gauges how employees feel about their work culture and wellness programmes. The main finding of the two reports is that to understand what has the most powerful impact on employee wellness ‘you must look well beyond the wellness programme’ itself. Instead, the pivotal factor is whether an employee identifies their company as caring about their health and wellness.

February 23, 2016

High demand in Dubai office market continues to sustain rents ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

Office rents in Dubai’s main markets have remained strong as a result of continued high demand from both international and domestic occupiers, reports Cluttons, but despite a sustained demand, occupiers remain cost conscious and budget driven in the face of a softening global economic backdrop. Landlords, by contrast appear to be slow to react to a cooling market, with many reluctant to move on asking prices and others demonstrating a lack of flexibility for lease terms at renewal. The emerging gulf between market reality and landlords’ expectations is a concern, says Faisal Durrani, Cluttons’ head of research, “particularly for a market that is now starting to show signs of maturity.” The analysis of the performance of 22 submarkets across the city in the first quarter of the year reveals that 13 submarkets witnessed no change in starting rents in 2015, seven experienced notable increases and the remaining two lower limit rents decreased over the 12 months of 2015.

February 18, 2016

What would happen if you didn’t turn up for work tomorrow? ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

You might assume that most people would like to think of themselves as more or less indispensable at work. And if they’re not already, would like to make themselves indispensable at some point. But what exactly would happen if you simply didn’t turn up for work tomorrow? It might be nothing, as the recent case of Joaquin Garcia proved. The Spanish civil servant hadn’t turned up to work for at least six years, according to reports from last year. His absence only came to light when his employer decided he was eligible for a long term service award. His case became something of a sensation in Spain, where he earned the moniker el funcionario fantasma – the phantom official. But his story isn’t a one off. In a grim news item from 2004, a Finnish tax inspector died at his desk and the fact went unnoticed for two days.

February 18, 2016

The UK public sector workplace is disempowered and can’t cope with change ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

A new report claims that the typical public sector workplace in the UK is dysfunctional on a number of levels. That is not the conclusion of some right wing think tank, but instead comes from Civica’s Invigorating the Public Sector Revolution report, commissioned in partnership with Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE). Based on a survey of 276 senior and middle management staff, a mere 7 percent of respondents said that the public sector offered an empowering working culture and just 25 percent believe their management teams have the skills and attitudes to lead the organisation over the next ten years. Of particular concern was the ability of organisations to cope with change. Just under half (47 percent) of those surveyed believe their leadership team lacks the management skills needed for ‘a period of massive and accelerating change’.

February 17, 2016

The workplace is not just about the play, but the stage too ⁰

by Darren Bilsborough • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Workplace design

Why is it that just about every article I read talking about the value of workplace design, almost always ignores the broader context of the building and precinct in which the workplace is located? Similarly, almost all conversations extolling the virtues of remote working, love to predict the extinction of the office and diminish its relevance as an important contributor to the operations of a successful business. Personally, I have yet to find an acceptable substitution for face to face communication. It is just not possible for clear, consistent and unmistakeable communication to occur over email, text, phone or skype. The ability to be able to read someone’s body language, grab a pen and paper to draw a diagram, point to an example, empathise sincerely with a colleague, customer or collaborator’s struggles with complex concepts, is just not possible to do quickly, effectively and efficiently without face to face communication.

February 15, 2016

The death of the office meme does not fit with a thriving property market ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Property, Workplace design

You don’t have to look very far to find somebody or other proclaiming the death of the office. A quick Google search will come up with over 73 million results for the past year alone. This has been going on for decades, but a search engine now gives us a far better idea than the occasional feature in a trade magazine of just how the idea has evolved into a full-blown meme. The narrative has become so entrenched that the people who use it – typically the ignorant, the self-interested, the lazy and the ill-informed – rarely have their premise challenged. Usually it is an idea appended to some disruptive and supposedly apocalyptic trend and, at the moment, office kryptonite comes in the form of coworking, where once it was flexible working or mobile technology. And yet, for all the non-fatal wounds these innovations have inflicted on the traditional office, the idea of people travelling to work alongside each other in shared buildings endures.